Georgia jails six opposition leaders in one week as crackdown accelerates

A court in Tbilisi sentenced Nika Melia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, to eight months in prison on Friday, the sixth opposition figure jailed in seven days. Former MP Givi Targamadze received seven months. Both were convicted of refusing to testify before a parliamentary commission and barred from public office for two years. The speed and scale of the convictions have removed nearly the entire leadership of Georgia's pro-Western opposition from the political arena.

Six convictions in seven days

The jail terms handed down since late June read like a roll-call of the opposition's most recognisable names. Alongside Melia and Targamadze, the courts have sentenced Giorgi Vashadze, Zurab Japaridze, Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze. The latter two are former bank executives who entered politics to challenge Georgian Dream. Nika Gvaramia, another prominent opposition leader, and a former defence minister remain in pre-trial detention. Human rights groups now count as many as 60 people as political prisoners.

All six convicted politicians were charged under a provision of Georgia's criminal code that makes it an offence to fail to comply with a "lawful request" from a parliamentary commission. The commission in question was established by the Georgian Dream majority to investigate the "alleged crimes" of the previous government, specifically the period covering the 2008 war with Russia. Opposition politicians have refused to appear, citing both their boycott of parliament and their view that the commission is a politically motivated instrument to silence critics.

The parliamentary commission and its legal basis

The investigative commission was created after the opposition boycotted parliament following the October 2024 elections, which the opposition and the European Parliament denounced as neither free nor fair. In response, Georgian Dream halted Georgia's EU accession bid, a move that triggered nightly protests in Tbilisi that have now continued for more than 200 consecutive nights. The commission's mandate reaches back to the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili and the 2008 conflict with Russia, a period that remains deeply polarising in Georgian politics.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told parliament on Friday that the commission was doing "very important work exposing a previous government that was entirely built on crime". He added: "Everyone must understand once and for all that there is no place for criminals in Georgian politics." The opposition counters that the commission's real purpose is to manufacture legal pretexts for imprisoning political rivals. The criminal code provision used to convict the six leaders carries a maximum penalty of one year; the sentences handed down range from seven to eight months.

International condemnation and the EU dimension

Norway's foreign ministry described the arrests as an "unprecedented attack on Georgia's democracy" and called for an immediate end to "repressive actions". Transparency International went further, calling the situation "the most severe democratic collapse in Georgia's post-Soviet history" and accusing Georgian Dream of launching "a full-scale authoritarian offensive". The European Commission's enlargement policy has been effectively frozen since Georgian Dream announced it would not pursue EU membership, a decision that reversed years of formal progress toward accession.

The European Parliament's October resolution stated that the elections "did not meet international standards" and cited "widespread and systematic irregularities". Since then, the EU has suspended high-level contacts and financial support linked to the accession process. The Georgian government's response has been to deepen ties with Moscow, a shift that alarms much of the Georgian public. Polls consistently show a majority of Georgians support EU membership, a sentiment that has fuelled the sustained street protests.

Protests, arrests and allegations of torture

Since the election, Georgians have gathered every night in central Tbilisi, demanding new elections and the release of those detained during pro-EU rallies. Human rights organisations say 500 people have been arrested during the protests and that 300 of them were subjected to torture. Independent journalists have not been spared: Mzia Amaglobeli, a respected reporter, remains in prison. Independent television stations face what observers describe as a campaign of censorship and financial pressure designed to force them off air or into compliance.

Forty civil society groups issued a joint statement this week declaring that Bidzina Ivanishvili had "chosen to maintain power through dictatorship, and fundamental human rights are violated every day". Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia during the 1990s, formally retired from politics in 2021 but is widely believed to direct all branches of government. He is under US sanctions, imposed over concerns about his influence on Georgia's democratic trajectory and his Russian business connections.

The Ivanishvili factor and the Bachiashvili case

The reach of Ivanishvili's influence was illustrated dramatically last month when Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former close confidant who fled the country, reappeared in Georgian custody. Bachiashvili, 39, claimed he was "kidnapped from abroad" and flown back to Georgia by force. He had been tried in absentia and convicted of misappropriating millions of dollars, a case he described as politically motivated. His lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, told the BBC he was "deeply concerned for his safety" and noted that "too many people see him as a highly competent political figure". Georgian authorities maintain that Bachiashvili was lawfully returned to serve his sentence.

The Bachiashvili episode underscores a pattern: those who break with Ivanishvili, whether opposition politicians or former allies, face the full weight of the state's legal apparatus. The opposition's boycott of parliament, intended to delegitimise the election result, has instead provided the majority with a pretext to criminalise non-cooperation with a commission the opposition views as illegitimate. The result is a political class almost entirely cleared of dissenting voices.

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